I hate driving… in rush hour traffic. I’ve toyed with leaving early, leaving late–to no avail. Unless you’re an hour and a half ahead of the pack you won’t get anywhere in Denver. My 50 mile drive turned into an 90 minute sit-and-stare fest. That’s one reason I just leased a new car.
I’ve been driving a Subaru station since the beginning of college (it’s a ’94) and I figured, with my big-boy job and all, it was time I gave the family car back. I visited my local Nissan dealership, had my research and information all done and I was ready to commit. Two hours later I signed a two-year lease to a 2007 Nissan Sentra SL.
It’s pretty, it’s fast, it’s fun, it’s new. I’m quite pleased. I don’t have to deal with the poor old Subaru’s clutch all day in traffic, I don’t have to wonder if my car will start this morning, I didn’t have to drop a ton of cash. I’m pleased with how things turned out. So, with all that said, I wish I didn’t have to drive; Denver is far too spread out.
Okay, so I’m secretly an environmentalist (I don’t own a car, I use http://www.communitycar.com), and I can’t believe you didn’t go for a hybrid! That’s the cool thing to do you know.. ;)
yay! congratulations!
and maybe you could donate some of those company mileage reimbursements you get towards wind credits? not quite as cool as a hybrid, but almost…
Really nice tunes
“Talking Books”
Zen Chanting
Car Pools
Ham Radio
Singing
Move
PS – Hybrids “An Inconvenient Truth” — batteries, scare metals, environmental recyling, carbon footprint, … it anit “the” answer, but its “hip” …
take a standard V-4 engine, supercharge it, water injection, streamline the body, you get 50 MPG.
I would like to nominate my 5 minute bike to work as “the best commute ever.” :P
But, 50 mile commute? Ouch. Are you still in Boulder and commuting to Denver?
Rebecca: Haha, as ScooterScum pointed out and Ramit has at this article, hybrids don’t save me money or, in the grand scheme of things, much of the atmosphere. ;)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very concerned for the environment. I think there are bigger things we can do though. I’m the kind of guy who looks at recycling and realizes two milk jugs a week does nothing.. even collectively. Maybe I will look into some credits, Rachel; good thinking.
Nicole: I envy you. Some day I hope to live where I can walk/bike to work every day. So, yes, my first job requires a commute from Broomfield to south Denver. :(
I hate driving too. Although I live in Anchorage, Alaska – aka, not the center of world traffic – I still hate driving, in general.
It’s such a pain.
“Don
Pingback: Modite - Engagement for the next generation
My 2007 car is considerably more efficient than my 1994 car. In fact, it’s more efficient than the majority of the market.
I considered it, ask Rachel, but I can’t drive a car like a Prius in Colorado. There’s a trade-off between power and efficiency and mountains need power.
I’m an accountant, I have a grasp on my financial decision. ;)
The problem is the economic incentives to switch aren’t strong enough. There absolutely is a demand for environmentally friendly products… that’s why it (organic food, organic clothing, hybrid cars) costs more. Look to your government or corporations, they’re as much the culprit.
Just to add a couple of facts to the flurry of opinions flying back and forth:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ let’s you do side by side comparisons of car emissions based on year and model. Devin’s new car is significantly more efficient than his 1994 one. He’s getting roughly 30% more miles to the gallon and his carbon emissions have decreased by over 1.5 tons/year.
I can see the argument progressing to something along the lines of “it’s an improvement, but look at it compared to the Prius.” Admittedly, the Prius swings for the fences when it comes to fuel-economy statistics, but I believe that looking at the situation economically makes a difference.
A bit of online price shopping showed that a Prius with the roughly the same options package as Devin’s Sentra would be roughly $6,500 more than the Sentra. If you go back and look at fueleconomy.gov, it gives estimates of the average fuel cost per year for each car. Comparatively, you’d be spending roughly $1600/year for gas on the Sentra and $900 for the Prius, or saving about $700/year. So if you net out fuel savings for 2 years, you are still paying over $5100 more for the Prius. In fact, it would take you over 9.5 years of fuel savings to break even on the increased cost of the car. And yes, please take number that with a grain of salt because I didn’t include fuel cost inflation…sue me, it’s a blog comment…:)
So I guess my overall conclusion is that Devin made a pretty solid decision in my book. Another conclusion I have reached as I write this is that it is perhaps a good thing I don’t have many nights of insomnia, because this is slightly ridiculous…
I also just wanted to throw out there that the NPV of saving $700/year in fuel for 10 years is still more than $1000 less than the additional upfront cost of $6500.
Sorry…I promise I’ll stop.
sweet dude! this is is why i am really not excited about ever moving to a big city in my life. traffic in eau claire is perfect…
yes! Sometimes I do have driving!